Kerry Lopez has successfully combined the roles of businesswoman and environmentalist by focusing on her love of whales and Moreton Bay's marine environment. Working as a deckhand on board a spectator craft during the 1987 America's Cup competition on Perth, stimulated her to enrol in the Fremantle Maritime College's Master Mariners course.
She was the only woman in a class of 30 students. Ultimately she became only the second woman in Australia to gain a Class 5 Master Mariners certificate. Lopez left the west to search for work around Australia.
Two years later and she had enough sea time with tour operators and merchant marine work to study for and receive her Class Four master's Certificate. Arriving in Brisbane, she began work as a skipper on the boat Cat O’Nine Tails taking people to St Helena Island and then on Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
In 1996 operating out of Redcliffe, Kerry established Brisbane Whale Watching, a company dedicated to preserving the whale and its environment, through eco-tourism. In doing so she became the only woman generating a whale watching venture in the South Pacific Rim.
In 2000 , her company hosted the International Humpback Whale Conference.
Her whale watching vessel Eye Spy carries in excess of 2500 visitors each month to Moreton Bay, during the six-month whale watching season.
At the Moreton Bay Business & Innovation Awards, Kerry Lopez was named the Moreton Bay
Businesswoman of the Year in 2022 and Brisbane Whale Watching won the 2023 Award for
Tourism Business Excellence.
Kerry Lopez is listed on the wall of the Redcliffe Wall of Fame:
A collection of portrait and information honouring the achievements of individuals who have influenced and shaped Redcliffe. The collection is in the Jetty Arcade at 139-141 Redcliffe Parade.
For a complete list of people who appear on the wall click on the following blog post: